Mapping the mountain of human DNA

TO AN outsider, the Human Genome Project looks like a scientific Everest: people counting genes just because they are there. For those of us not drawn to data-mountains, the gap between the project's usefulness and the grand promises of its early days is striking.

Now, 10 years since the first draft sequence was revealed, a widespread debate has arisen about its impact. Into the fray steps veteran science writer Victor McElheny. His Drawing the Map of Life is an in-depth chronicle of the project that moves from the nascent genetic questions of 1970s biology, through the fierce rivalry of the non-profit and for-profit projects as they raced to finish a first draft, and ends with an admirably up-to-date look at the field today.

McElheny, who has reported on many aspects of DNA research since the
1970s and worked for a while at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New
York state, a long-standing leader in genetics, uses his insider
experience to deliver an account that avoids a simplistic "heroes and
villains of science" narrative. Instead, the book presents a combination
of group biography and a history of ideas that moves swiftly from one
significant episode to the next.

He reports on individual eureka moments, decades of dedication,
landmark genome sequences, such as the worm Caenorhabditis elegans,
yeast and the mouse, and - where it moves the story along - the
pronouncements and conflicts of key figures in the field.

Plenty of ink has been devoted to the big names of genomics, and
while McElheny gives the titans their due, he also creates punchy
thumbnail sketches of the often overlooked but fascinating cast. Meet
people like Hamilton O. Smith, whose parents used to entertain him with
mathematics quizzes and who was co-winner of the 1978 Nobel prize in
physiology or medicine for discovering restriction enzymes. Or Walter
Gilbert, one of the pioneers of DNA sequencing in the 1970s who used to
cut classes to visit the US Library of Congress. Then there's Jim Kent,
who did the programming for the draft sequence of the public project in
one month using 100 personal computers, icing his sore wrists as he
went. McElheny's wide lens makes for a sophisticated story and it also
engenders a real sense of wonder at the sheer amount of genius engaged
in the project.

Everyone probably remembers the headline findings of early 2001 -
shock that 98 per cent of the genome didn't seem to do anything and
disbelief at humanity's modest gene count (30,000 and falling). By so
comprehensively telling the story of what happened before and after this
moment, McElheny leaves the reader in no doubt that the genomic
climbing expedition was only the beginning of a thrilling era that will
unfold for many decades to come.